Pep Guardiola brands Yaya Toure’s racism allegations against him as ‘a lie and he knows it’

Toure also accused Guardiola of 'spoiling' his Manchester City farewell

Pep Guardiola has broken his silence on Yaya Toure’s claims that he has “problems with Africans” by calling his former midfielder’s allegations “a lie and he knows it”.

Toure, in an interview with France Football, had strongly criticised the Manchester City manager for trying to “spoil” his final season with the club before suggesting it was “about my colour”.

He said: “He was cruel with me. Do you believe that Barcelona could have done that with (Andres) Iniesta? I even started wondering to myself whether it was about my colour.

“I'm not the first person to talk about his different ways of treating people. I know some other people at Barca who have also wondered about that. Maybe it's the case that we Africans aren't always treated by certain people in the same way that they treat others.

“When you see that he's had problems with Africans wherever he's been in the past, you wonder. When the day comes that he picks a team featuring five Africans - and not naturalised Africans - I promise I will send him a cake!”

However, Guardiola has hit back at those claims by the Ivorian in an interview with Catalan television station TV3.

“It's a lie and he knows it,” Guardiola said, when quizzed about Toure’s comments. “We were together for two years and now this is when he says it. He never told me face to face.”